SpaceX's giant Starship rocket explodes on its first test flight
The most powerful rocket ever built lifted off before tumbling out of control and being destroyed, in a setback the company framed as part of its rapid development approach.
SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket on its first full test flight on Thursday, and although the vehicle cleared the launch pad and climbed for several minutes, it tumbled out of control and was destroyed before reaching space — an outcome the company nonetheless hailed as a useful step forward.
Standing about 120 metres tall, Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, designed to be fully reusable and to eventually carry people to the Moon and Mars. Its first stage, the Super Heavy booster, is powered by 33 engines, several of which failed during the ascent from the company's site in South Texas.
The two stages failed to separate as planned, and the vehicle began spinning before SpaceX triggered its self-destruct system, sending it apart in a fireball over the Gulf of Mexico about four minutes after liftoff. The force of the launch also damaged the pad and scattered debris.
SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, embraced a philosophy of rapid, iterative testing in which explosions are treated as learning opportunities rather than failures, and employees cheered the flight as a success for having gotten off the ground at all.
NASA was closely watching, having selected a version of Starship to land astronauts on the Moon later in the decade. The flight demonstrated both the ambition of the programme and the long road of testing that lay ahead before the rocket could fly reliably.